Key Points of Straw Mulch Cultivation Techniques for Autumn Potatoes (Part 1)

The straw mulch cultivation technique for autumn potatoes is a new technique used in the stubble field after mid-season rice harvest, adopting no-till surface sowing with straw mulching after sowing to cultivate potatoes. It saves labor, effort and time, provides heat preservation, moisture retention, waterlogging prevention and weed control, returns straw to the field to build soil fertility, increases soil organic matter, improves soil structure, reduces soil erosion, improves the agricultural ecological environment, and promotes sustainable agricultural development. It is an important technique that saves labor and costs, increases yield and efficiency, and optimizes the structure of late-autumn grain and oil production. Its key cultivation techniques are as follows:

1. Standardize field preparation. When harvesting rice, leave short rice stubble. Immediately after rice harvest, open furrows and make beds. Adopt deep furrows and high beds, making beds at 2.25 m, with a bed surface width of 2 m, furrow width of 0.25 m, and furrow depth of 0.3 m; open a border ditch 1 m from the field ridge on all sides, with a ditch width of 0.25 m and a ditch depth of 0.3-0.4 m. Keep the bed surface level and consistent in height, and fix the bed-furrow layout permanently. For pure potato fields, after potato harvest, vegetables can be planted with no-till or @#@245@#@ can be sown with no-till; after vegetable or wheat harvest, rice can be cultivated with no-till. For fields intercropping autumn potatoes with rapeseed, after potato harvest rapeseed is grown, and after rapeseed harvest rice is cultivated with no-till.

2. Promote early-maturing virus-free improved varieties. Comparative variety trials of straw mulch cultivation of autumn potatoes in our city show that for straw mulch cultivation of autumn potatoes, one should first select varieties with strong stress resistance, especially resistance to high temperature, a short dormancy period (dormancy period 30-40 days), and early tuber formation, namely early-maturing and extra-early-maturing varieties, as well as virus-free potatoes with strong disease resistance as seed potatoes. For vegetable-type varieties, Yupotato No. 1, Chuanyu No. 4, "Zhongshu No. 3", "Nanzhong 552", etc. can be promoted; they can all be harvested 60 days after emergence, and some can be harvested 45 days after emergence. For processing varieties, "Atlantic" has relatively high yield, concentrated tuber formation, a high rate of medium-sized tubers, smooth skin, and medium-depth eyes; it is relatively resistant to late blight in autumn planting and can be promoted with greater effort.

3. Seed potato treatment. For autumn-planted potatoes, it is best to sow whole small seed potatoes, with each small whole seed potato weighing about 25 grams. If large potatoes are used as seed potatoes, they should be cut into pieces and sprouted before germination.

(1) Cutting into pieces. 7-10 days before sowing, select single potatoes that are disease-free and undamaged and weigh 70-80 grams as seed potatoes, and use a sharp knife to cut them lengthwise downward along the apical bud into 3-4 pieces, with each piece retaining 1-2 eyes.

(2) Seed soaking. Soaking seeds with gibberellin (920) can break dormancy and promote germination. The method is: soak whole seed potatoes or cut pieces. For whole seed potatoes, soak with 10-20 ppm gibberellin for 30 minutes; for cut pieces, soak with 1 ppm gibberellin for 5-10 minutes.

(3) Sprouting. Place the soaked seed potatoes indoors, with moist straw spread above and below and the seed potatoes placed in the middle. When the sprouts grow to 0.5-1 cm, they can be planted in the field.